oowwwww bloody digging, who dug up the lawn and made it vege beds anyway I’d like to know? Oh, it were me!

Anyway, had to get in and tidy the back of the back garden up arthritic shoulders or not! Got a bit over half of that big patch dug, the rest tomorrow and Tuesday. Have a break Wednesday then rake it out, spread some dolomite and cow poop, plant broadbean seed.

Next biggest patch I will do next, chuck in rather more cow poop, plant spuds.

After that, kill some trees that selfseeded.

My lemon tree has a lot of fruit on it, not quite ripe yet. Want to use the fruit for sure!

Lemon marmalade: lemons and grapefruit, both from my garden. Wonder if blood limes are in season yet? They come out before Seville oranges so maybe—will go to the farmers market in Willunga next Saturday, see what is there.

Anyway, the third vege patch will also be put to spuds or maybe chard and lettuce—leafy greens. Then tidy up the rest of the back part of the backyard.

Several rows of broadbean plants, hopefully a few more Sunday if the rain stays away, soil too soggy to work ATM.

Have just planted two egg cartons of seed raising mix with saucing tomatoes.

Need to dig and weed another patch now to take the bloody tomato plants

And some more for two lots seed potatoes.

And cut down some trees, maybe kill a couple others that selfseeded and grew huge while I was stuffed by arthritis. One I will cut down. The other two I reckon I might chop some bark off and make a few cuts into the wood then paint it with tree and raspberry killer. I sprayed the leaves of one of these trees and the bastard loved it and doubled in size

HBS Guy wrote:Yeah, I should plant some herbs near the fishpond. Had a herb patch there, bloody chickens soon changed that:

SageTarragonParsley

Have rosemary and a bay tree.

I've recently put in some herbs. Basil, Thai Coriander, Viet Mint, Ordinary Mint, Lemongrass , flat Parsley and Pizza Thyme. They are doing well, and the Thai Coriander has suddenly produced a stem with buds radiating out. Its going to seed :) . Amazing stuff that. The Viet Mint is powering,, and the Basil.. my goodness me. Too much for me. So I was wondering, umm, is it true that some herbs are actually more beneficial dried.?I'm thinking I'll sun dry all the excess Basil, for example. I always prefer fresh, BUT I could end up with lots of dried herbs. This is good yes?I've got acreage but most of it is left au naturel. A REAL home among the gum trees. I'm not a gardener, per se, I've just decided I'd like access to these flavours for my noodle soups and curries and stirfry. Don't think I 've ever eaten so much Basil. The scents are intoxicating. :)

Drying herbs is easy enough. Put in a paper bag with the herbs hanging down and hang that where it gets some breeze or draught.

Basil should stay pungent for a couple of years after drying, water tender, don’t let it dry out. Coriander is a waste of time growing—it bolts to seed rapidly.

It is worth planting a bay tree, needs a bit of care for a year or two, plenty water, then will grow and you have bay leaves whenever you like. Vigorous grower, easy to cut the branches, make a nice smoke.

Have worked out my cider apple planting, will draw that today, then add the cherry and plum trees. I have increased the row spacing which will ensure the sun will reach more of each tree. So all good.

When I first put the garden bed in, my dog would climb in to eat the lemongrass. After a couple of growl sessions she got the message. BUT I have a native critter that has also gone in. It dug a hole, but it was too small to be my dog. I see these wee holes all over the place. I reckon its a Bandicoot, or something similar. May have to consider a bit wire or a screen of some sort. We will see.

Coriander seeds quickly its true, but I've been told there are two types of common coriander. One is designed for seed production, whilst the other one is entered to produce leaf. You probably only have had the seeding variety.

The coriander I'm growing is THAI. IE it looks a bit like shiny saw-edged flat leaf weed. Incredible aroma. The leaf is a little tough but so delicious. I imagine its called Thai Coriander, or Perennial Coriander, because its flavour is very similar. Looks nothing like ordinary Coriander.An absolute MUST HAVE for thai cooking.

See if you can find some pics of it, if you get the time. Mine is newly planted, and I have use the older leaves, and it is in fact 2 plants, the older one of which recently, after some wonderful unexpected rain, has put up a relatively thick stem which has subsequently branched out in a striking pattern, spikes aplenty, with a flower(?) forming at their centres. I suppose I could take a pic of it and endeavour to post a pic here, but I haven't really got the steadiest of hands. If you can't find it I'll have a go, in the next day or so. It is quite stunning. Something I have NEVER seen before. !! Now THAT is always a buzz.

We used to have this weather in the third week of January and apart from the few days in that week the air was dry making the heat bearable.

No more, Queensland weather is what we now get!

Apart from that, some good news.

Have found someone to deep rip under where the cider apple, dwarf apple and cherry trees will go, providing the drainage the trees need. The soil where I will plant the trees will also be ploughed, making it supereasy to work the lime, sand, compost etc into it! This will be done just before I go there to plant the trees. Excellent!

My block in Tassie has “difficult” soil. So I looked for books on soil.

Bought this from Book Depository:

A Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin—“Improving your soil” by Stu Campbell.

Cost me $7. It has 31 pages. Gives a great overview of the subject, soil and how to improve it. My trip to Tassie has been delayed so I will take advantage of that to continue amending my “soil.” Ha!

I recommend these little books. They DO pack a lot of info into the slim volumes. Great intro before reading more advanced or more comprehensive treatises. If you can’t hack the Storey books then maybe the subject is not for you.